Spring 2024 civil service exams wrapped last week and the chiefs of the El Dorado police and fire departments have said they are pleased with the results.
Written entry-level and promotional exams were administered April 8 and testing resumed on April 10 with oral interviews for promotional candidates in each department.
The police and fire departments set their own physical fitness/agility test schedule, with the fire department administering its PT test on April 6 and the police department following up on April 9.
Immediately after oral interviews ended on April 10, the El Dorado Civil Service Commission certified the results of the exams.
"We had four people that made it (through all three phases of testing)," said EPD Chief Kenny Hickman.
He said the testing cycle started out with nine entry-level candidates who took the written exams.
Six passed advanced through the written and PT phases of testing and by the end of the oral interviews, four entry-level candidates remained standing.
The EPD does not have any vacancies for new hires, said Hickman, noting that has not typically been the case in recent years in which the EPD had been averaging six openings.
Entry-level candidates who passed 2024 civil service exams for the police department and their score rankings include:
Dalton Gosvenor, 1.
Kameron Nichols, 2.
Dakota Loggins, 3.
Michale Upton, 4.
Hickman said the four applicants will be added to the EPD's eligibility list. The list is good for up to a year after the results of civil service exams are certified.
Gosvenor, Nichols, Loggins and Upton are the only four candidates on the list at the moment, Hickman said, adding that the list had been exhausted prior to the latest civil service exams.
"There are not any residual applicants from prior testing," he said.
The police chief referred to an unprecedented three rounds of civil service exams that were administered in 2023 at the request of the EPD to fill vacancies.
Typically, the civil service commission and police and fire departments hold two testing cycles per year, one in the spring, as required by state law, and the other in the fall.
A third testing cycle was added last summer to fill the 52 slots that are available for uniformed personnel in the police department.
At the time, Fire Chief Chad Mosby said the EFD's uniformed personnel roster was full but the fire department participated in all three rounds of civil service testing to keep its eligibility list stacked.
Hickman lauded the candidates who applied for and took the 2024 civil service exam to join the EPD.
"The numbers of new people applying had been so low and then you had to contend with the number that actually showed up and passed the test," Hickman said.
He has said that EPD has relied on hiring certified officers from other law enforcement agencies in recent years.
Hickman and Mosby have also pointed out that some candidates do not make it through other pre-hire stages of employment, including psychological testing and background checks, while some who are hired do not successfully complete training.
Five or six new EPD officers are already in various stages of training, including attending the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy and the Arkansas Fire Training Academy, both of which have sites in Camden.
Hickman said some new hires are undergoing field training.
He explained that the training process is a total of 25 weeks, with 13 weeks spent in the academy for basic training and 12 weeks in field training.
The EFD emerged from them 2024 civil service exams with five certified candidates for entry-level positions.
They are:
Robert Still, 1.
Dalton Gosvenor, 2.
Rhett Conner, 3.
Anthony Woods, 4.
Jordon Ford, 5.
"Everything turned out good. We have one current vacancy and I'm expecting a couple at the end of the month," Mosby said.
"We've got some retirements coming up, so we're preparing for that and we've got others leaving for other reasons so we're going to hire a few in the next few months," he continued. "I've already set up final interviews with me."
Mosby said he does not foresee the need for an additional round of civil service testing before the fall.
The department recently received approval from the El Dorado City Council/Finance Committee and the El Dorado Civil Service Commission to add a 53rd slot for uniformed personnel.
Mosby previously explained that a firefighter is expected to leave soon on a long-term military deployment that could last for eight to 12 months or longer.
The EFD will retain the firefighter's position while he is gone but will not pay him a salary during his deployment because he will be paid by the U.S. Army at that time.
"We want to hire someone while he's gone and once he returns, that extra slot goes away through attrition," Mosby told civil service commissioners last week.